Posted 21 June 2017 - 06:22 AM
Welcome, Scolba! Took a look at your link- that's one big honkin' tank! I love these kind of projects, have a couple I'd like to do themed around my days as a kid and my family's history. (I dabble in the genealogy, too.) Don't reckon mine will be so large scale, though!
As for laminated booklets (cheat sheets to me) there is an excellent guide done of redhorses by our very own Olaf, and you can check out his stuff at moxostoma.com. He's an Illinois boy. Ben Cantrell is not long for Illini-country, but is a fisherman of friendly vengeance, and has likely hooked every fish in your state from smallest fry to biggest behemoth. They are two excellent references for your area. We have others, but they are not terribly forum-active so to speak. Ben and Olaf are crazy busy, but they will probably be happy to provide you any deets they have.
Otherwise, I don't know if there is a laminated cheat sheet type deal for IL endangered species. What might be a good option for you, especially if you aren't in a hurry, is to get the most recent edition of Peterson's Fishes of North America by Page and Burr online or where-ever as well as a list of no-no fishes for IL from the appropriate state agency. Look up the forbiddens in Peterson's and double check to see if they occur in the Mackinaw drainage. That will give you a pretty good foundation on which to start. Then highlight, index, et cetera as fits your mindset. Not as good as a cheat sheet, but a start. The more fish books the better of course (someone doing a 265 planted stream build knows this already, I know. I routinely use multiple field guides to help me id a tricky fish. So build ya a library.
Lastly, thanks for joining us, and THANK YOU for checking up on legalities before starting! We pride ourselves on "being legal" here, even when that's painful...
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."